Samuel Johnson Quotes About Happiness

• The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Uplifting, Hope

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.8

• The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Happiness, Grief

  "The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752".

• Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought; our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Happy, Laughter

  "The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous".

• There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Beer, Men

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 2, p. 452 (21 March 1776)

• Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Inspirational, Happiness, Knowledge

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.16

• There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Art, Men

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1799). “Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey Into North Wales”, p.502

• As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Men, Good Man

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for Sept. 1783)

• To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise... Let him take a course of chemistry, or a course of rope-dance, or a course of any thing to which he is inclined at the time. Let him contrive to have as many retreats for his mind as he can, as many things to which it can fly from itself.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Art, Exercise

  "The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D". Book by James Boswell, 1791.

• Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Drinking, Wine

  "The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals".

• Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new prospects, and produces new incitements to farther progress.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Curiosity, Progress

  Samuel Johnson, William Page (1860). “Life and Writings”, p.37

• To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Art, Exercise

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1824). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Comprehending an Account of His Studies, and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order: A Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published; the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished”, p.416

• To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Complaints, Wretched

  Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke (1819). “Rasselas”, p.133

• We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Believe, Long

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.467

• We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is discovered that we can have no more.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Want

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With Murphy's Essay”, p.678

• Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Food, Cooking

  In William Roberts (ed.) 'Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hannah More' (1834) vol. 1, p. 251

• Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Success, Men

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1840). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.249

• Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Animal, Equality

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1818). “The table talk of Samuel Johnson”, p.120

• "I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Lonely, Loneliness

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.458

• The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Yield, Joy

  Samuel Johnson (1800). “The Idler: With Additional Essays”, p.63

• Happiness is enjoyed only in proportion as it is known; and such is the state or folly of man, that it is known only by experience of its contrary.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Men, Joy

  John Hawkesworth, Samuel Johnson, Richard Bathurst, Joseph Warton (1793). “The Adventurer”, p.216

• Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from time to come.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Life Is, Periods

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.212

• Philosophers there are who try to make themselves believe that this life is happy; but they believe it only while they are saying it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Believe, Mind

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “Essay on the life and genius of Dr. Johnson [by Arthur Murphy] Poems. Rasselas, prince of Abissinia. Letters”, p.348

• The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Laughter, Men

  "Johnsoniana, Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson".

• When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Pride, Power

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.224

• Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Trying, Care

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